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| I'm going to be in Omaha this weekend for a wedding. One of my favorite people is getting married on May 19th. I'll be there until about Tuesday May 22nd (I'm not really sure when or how I'm going home yet).
Anyway, it would be fun to see you while I'm there, if you happen to be one of the people that lives in that state. I'm also looking for places to stay, and maybe a ride to/from the airport, if anyone has any ideas.
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| You know what? Dressing like a ninja is not against the law, but I'm pretty sure that profiling is.
Some friends and I played in an Ultimate frisbee tournament on Saturday. It had a Halloween theme. So costumes were mandatory. My roommate, who was driving us all home, was part of a mariachi band. The other three were a sheriff, a pirate, and an animal tamer. I was a ninja. Full black. Mask and everything. We dropped the sheriff off on campus (Mines) to get his car; it was about 5:30pm, and still light outside. A campus cop drove by while we were still there. We started heading home, and the cop turned around and started following us. The driver noticed him, so he was making sure that he wasn't doing anything wrong. The next intersection is a 'T' and we were turning right. As we did so, the cop flipped on his lights and pulled us over.
The officer told the driver to step out of the vehicle with his information. When is the last time you had to step out of your car for failing to signal? We found out after all of this was over that that was why he pulled us over, which was crap because we all saw him signal. I think differently. As the driver stepped out of his car, I noticed that he had his toy pellet gun in the side pocket of his door. I said "Oh, crap. Tell him it's a pellet gun." Too late. "Everyone put your hands up, driver turn around, nobody move! Nobody moves, you understand me?" He had a gun pointed at the backs of our heads; I shook my head yes. I was still wearing my ninja costume, with the mask on. It's interesting to note that it is not illegal to carry a gun in your car. It's especially interesting to point out that it is not illegal to carry a TOY gun in your car. The officer had called for backup while all of us sat or stood motionless. It didn't take long for them to get there. The first one was really close and got there in less than a minute. Within a few minutes there were also 4 state troopers and a county sheriff. (Three levels of law enforcement. Our tax dollars at work.)
The driver was told to walk slowly back, get down on his knees, then down to his belly with his hands out, palms up, and face towards the curb. He remained there in the exhaust of his own car, which was still running, until the other three of us were cuffed and detained in separate vehicles. Everything this officer with a power trip said, was repeated at least twice. I think he thought we were hard of hearing. That was nice of him to repeat things for us. The front seat passenger was the next to be told to get out of the car. As soon as he was out of eyesight of us, I heard the cuffs go on, and he was put in the back seat of the squad car directly behind us. The other guy was told to get out next, and I also heard cuffs go on him immediately, but I didn't hear a car door. I saw later that he was laid on the ground (also by the exhaust of a running vehicle) behind the squad car directly behind ours.
Lastly, I was told to step out of the car slowly without lowering my hands. It is rather difficult to remove a seat belt without lowering your hands, but I responded to everything I was told with 'Yes, Sir', and did my best to comply. I was told to walk backwards slowly, then to take a step to the left (further into the street). At this point I could see the driver to my right with a female officer standing behind him pointing a gun at his head. This is where I started to think that I was being profiled, because the other two that had just exited the car didn't receive these commands. "Drop to your knees! x2 Hands out! x2 Down to your belly! x2 Palms up! x2 Face to the left!" From here I could see the officer that was giving me the commands with his gun drawn on me. The next thing I heard was "This one has a mask! Face the curb! Face away from me!" Then he pounced on me with one knee on my neck and one knee on my lower back with my arm torqued up between them. He cuffed that hand as tightly as the cuff would go, then told me to slowly lift the other arm up so that he could do the same to that one. Then he rolled me to my side and started frisking me (that's just a fancy way of saying that he put his hand down the front of my pants). The he stood me up walked me over to a squad car and put me in the back.
This car was facing all the action, so I watched as they did the same thing to the driver that they had just done to me. Then they moved the last guy from the ground behind the squad car into another vehicle. These seats are uncomfortable, hard plastic, and having your wrist bound by metal behind your back doesn't help. I'm not sure what the standard procedure is with criminals, but if I were a cop, I wouldn't leave the window open between the front and back seats, especially with the car running. If a man were determined, there would be nothing stopping him from crawling into the front seat and driving off. There weren't even any officers close enough to do anything about it.
By this time I was still thinking that they would realize soon enough that it was a pellet gun that they saw, and they would apologize and let us go. I watched him pull the pellet gun out, but they didn't stop there. They searched the entire car, without permission, and without a warrant. I don't think they could have claimed probable cause anymore since they saw that it was a pellet gun. While these two officers were searching the car, there were five others about 20 feet away from me just telling stories and having a grand old time (very unprofessional).
A little while later one of the officers came up to the car I was in and opened the door on the side away from me. He was holding my driver's license, which I had left in my wallet, in my bag inside the car. He asked me my name, phone number, address, and why I was dressed like I was. I explained the whole frisbee tournament thing to him. After he was done with his question, I asked him why were still all cuffed and sitting in the backs of their squad cars when they had seen that it was just a pellet gun, and that we hadn't done anything wrong. I don't remember what he said, but he didn't answer my question, then he went back to whatever he was doing. A few minutes later, another officer came over and asked me the same questions. (Apparently their communication skills aren't up to par). I was getting tired of this by now, but I answered her questions, and told her that another officer had just asked me all of this. Then she asked me why the driver had the pellet gun in his car. I thought that was pretty irrelevant, since it wasn't illegal, but I told her that I didn't know.
Still a little while later, I noticed that they finally started uncuffing the other two passengers, and had them sit on the curb in front of our car. Then the original officer came over and had me step out of the car I was in. He had me face the car, then he asked me if I had any other weapons. This seemed to me like he was implying that I had a weapon in the first place. So I responded "Other weapons? I didn't have any weapons in the first place, Sir". Then he frisked me again, and uncuffed me. (Why did he frisk me again? gay...) I hadn't done anything wrong, but I was treated like a criminal, and harassed. Then he tried to explain to me about how he likes to go home at night, and he had to detain the situation for his safety. I don't really know, I stopped listening to him. He did ask me why I didn't pull the mask off though. I told him that he told me to put my hands up. I couldn't do both, and I especially wasn't going to disobey a man with a power trip and a gun pointed at the back of my head. Then he told me to sit on the curb with the others.
We sat there for another 5 minutes or so as they uncuffed the driver and were talking to him behind our car. Then he told us that we could get in the car, because he didn't want us to freeze out there. The other two got up and got in the car, I stayed there. The officer repeated himself. I looked back at him and said "Yes, you told us we could get in the car. I thought you were giving us the option, because you didn't tell us we had to." He told me to get in the car and not to be a smart ass. I didn't appreciate this since I still had not done anything wrong, but I was being detained against my will, but I got in the car. The three of us sat in the car for another 10 minutes before the driver finally got back in the car. Overall we were there for over an hour, it was dark by the time we were allowed to leave.
That's kind of long, but I was frustrated. I think the entire ordeal only occurred because I was wearing the ninja costume. Profiling? Maybe. I'm going to be wearing a full body ninja suit every day this week. I'm also going to convince everyone that I can on our campus to wear a ninja costume all day next Tuesday (Halloween). I don't mean to be bitter, but I don't think I should be harassed for wearing what I choose to wear.
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| If any of you are interested, I posted a little thing about my trip to Bolivia here:
http://www.jesusgodthebible.blogspot.com
Throwing poop is funny by the way. Good day.
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| I know I said I wouldn't post anything here, but this kind of made my day.
In my many years at Timberlake, the one thing that I have learned well is how to make a fire.
My friends and I went to the beach last night. It was pretty windy. We had some 2x4's, a couple of newspapers, and a lighter. They thought it would be impossible to start a fire without using the WD40 that we also had. I told them 'no way, I'm the man, watch this'. I had a blazing fire within a minute (no chemicals involved). Sweet.
Until I see you all again. Don't do anything too stupid. If you ever need anything that I may be able to help with. Feel free to call, e-mail, or message me, or even come to my house. Good day.
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| So, I just created a xanga so that I could leave comments on other peoples xangas. I don't really have anything to say here, because I have other sites. You can check them out if you want:
www.mines.edu/students/e/emcwhirt
lava.mines.edu/~ufo (Mines Ultimate Frisbee)
www.jesusgodthebible.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/eddiemac777
mines.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37902670
That's it. Have a good day.
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